NEWTOWN'S Mayor has called on Powys County Council to 'match' the town council's ambition and go further in its support for businesses recovering from the coronavirus pandemic.

The introduction of two-hours free parking in all council car parks during the school summer holiday has been welcomed by County Cllr David Selby, also the town's mayor.

Beginning on Saturday, July 25, the day after the schools in Powys break up, the two-hours free parking will remain until the last day of the summer holidays, Bank Holiday Monday, August 31.

But Cllr Selby says more needs to be done and that the authority should be lobbying the Welsh Government for the funding to make it happen.

Cllr Selby said: "I note that this decision could have been taken weeks ago as part of the re-opening our our towns. After the plain silly idea of a small number of free parking spaces in our car parks identified by rows of bollards we now have a better solution that I and others requested weeks ago, but only for six weeks.

"Our towns need help. The (Newtown) Town Council has plenty of ideas that have already been sent to Powys Council. These include extra planters around the street to replace bollards, covered canopies, safe cycle stands to encourage more bike use into town, changes to street furniture for visual appeal and encouraging businesses to add outside tables and chairs.

"The Town Council also has plans for digital noticeboards around the town. We need the County Council to match our ambition and I hope that we can have access to the Welsh Government's promised money to bring about change and help our residents, visitors and businesses alike."

The Council’s main opposition Welsh Lib Dem-Green Group Leader Cllr James Gibson-Watt has also welcomed the initiative but said it should have gone further.

He said: “It is disappointing that the Cabinet initially refused point blank to agree to this proposal.

"Even now the support will only cover the six weeks of the summer holidays and not the six months that our Welsh Lib Dem - Green motion to the next County Council meeting is seeking to achieve. This grudging concession will not give time for other initiatives on parking to be fully developed and implemented."

Cllr Gibson-Watt added: “Our market towns will need this help for many months to come, so we would have hoped Cabinet would have taken the opportunity to make this free parking period available at least through to Christmas, so our residents as well as tourists can benefit at a time when unemployment rates are predicted to spike and household finances will be most stretched.

"We will now review the papers underpinning this decision and continue our campaign for longer term support to Powys’s high streets. We look forward to working with councillors across the council to try to make this happen.”

Introducing the free paring initiative, Cllr Heulwen Hulme, cabinet member for Highways said: “The recent lockdown restrictions have meant that many local businesses have either had to be closed for a significant amount of time or have changed the way in which they continued to trade.

“With regulations easing, we are delighted to see our high streets being bought back to life once again.”